The present inventor has proposed, in the previous patent application (refer to Patent Document 1), a center-of-gravity detection system for detecting a center-of-gravity location in three-dimensional space of a containerized cargo whose condition of loading is unknown. The center-of-gravity detection system disclosed in Patent Document 1 is provided with an oscillation detector for detecting a vertical oscillation and a horizontal oscillation of a container cargo vehicle and an arithmetic unit. This system is configured such that a vertical oscillation detected by the oscillation detector is made to correspond to a reciprocation motion in an up/down (self-weight) direction in which the center of gravity of the container cargo vehicle is a mass point, while a horizontal oscillation detected by the oscillation detector being made to correspond to a simple pendulum motion in a roll direction in which the axle center of the container cargo vehicle is a support point and the center of gravity of the container cargo vehicle is a mass point, and the arithmetic unit makes an operation to derive the location of the center of gravity of the container cargo vehicle.
The center-of-gravity detection technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 is based on a center-of-gravity detection model as shown in FIG. 11. Herein, with the center-of-gravity detection model shown in FIG. 11, the axle center corresponds to the oscillation central axis, and from the distance between the spring structures, “b”, the gravitational acceleration “g”, the circular constant “π”, the vertical oscillation frequency in an up-down direction, “v”, the horizontal oscillation frequency in a roll direction, “V”, and the central angle “α”, the height of the center of gravity in the up/down direction, “l”, from the axle center to the center of gravity W of the container cargo vehicle (detection object) and the center-of-gravity distance in the right-left direction, “s”, from the axle center to the center of gravity W of the container cargo vehicle can be determined. Therefore, by detecting the vertical oscillation and the horizontal oscillation using the oscillation detector for determining the vertical oscillation frequency in the up-down direction, “v”, the horizontal oscillation frequency in the roll direction, “V”, and the central angle “α”, the height of the center of gravity in the up/down direction, “l”, from the axle center to the center of gravity W of the container cargo vehicle (detection object) and the center-of-gravity distance in the right-left direction, “s”, from the axle center to the center of gravity W of the container cargo vehicle can be calculated. The central angle “α” is an angle formed between a perpendicular center line passing through the axle center and the horizontal oscillation center line giving the center of horizontal oscillation as shown in FIG. 11, and can be determined by detecting the horizontal oscillation of the container cargo vehicle using the oscillation detector.
It is hoped that, by using this center-of-gravity detection model, a highly versatile center-of-gravity detecting system which can accurately detect the center of gravity of not only a container cargo vehicle but also various detection objects is built. By using this center-of-gravity detection model, the center-of-gravity location of even a detection object which has an indeterminate geometry and an unknown weight can be detected in as short as a few seconds, which provides an innumerable number of applicable fields and an immeasurable industrial value. For example, if a compact center-of-gravity detection system of desk-top type can be built, it can be placed on a hand cart, giving an extreme convenience, with the cost of the materials required for manufacture of the system being extremely low.